Apple sells three million iPads over first weekend

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Bruno Mars: 'SNL' can call me whenever they want

NEW YORK (AP) — Bruno Mars' recent appearance on "Saturday Night Live" was more like "Saturday Night Fever": He says he had so much fun hosting the show, he'd be happy to do it again.

"Whatever 'SNL' wants from me, they can always call me," the smiling 27-year-old said in an interview. "I don't know who told them I can act or anything 'cause I can't. I don't know what they saw. (But) whatever they need from me, they can get."

The singer-songwriter's Oct. 20 appearance as host and musical guest gave the NBC variety show its second best ratings this season behind last week's episode, hosted by comedian Louis C.K.

Mars was praised for his hilarious and silly sketches, particularly one skit where he did impersonations of other musicians as a live fill-in at Pandora when the company's computers crashed.

"It was kind of a way for me to face my fears and just let it all hang loose, literally," he said, laughing. "People don't understand that they're changing things right before the show, so you can't memorize lines because they're going to change it. They cut sketches and it's an amazing operation. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world."

The Grammy winner says he watched the show days after it aired live, and that's when things started to sink in, especially seeing himself dressed as a woman.

"I was like, 'Oh my god,'" he said, adding with a laugh: "Called my mom, 'Mom!'"

The "SNL" success is giving Mars a boost as he readies the release of his sophomore album, "Unorthodox Jukebox," out Dec. 11. It features Esperanza Spalding, Mark Ronson, Jeff Bhasker, Diplo, Paul Epworth and others.

On "SNL," he debuted a new song, "Young Girls," and performed his current single, the upbeat "Locked Out of Heaven." It's his 12th Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as a performer, songwriter or producer.

"I love ('Locked Out of Heaven') because it's different ... than what you're used to hearing me maybe sing normally," he said.

___

Online:

http://www.brunomars.com

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/

___

Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/musicmesfin .

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Study: Stem cells from strangers can repair hearts

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Researchers are reporting a key advance in using stem cells to repair hearts damaged by heart attacks. In a study, stem cells donated by strangers proved as safe and effective as patients' own cells for helping restore heart tissue.

The work involved just 30 patients in Miami and Baltimore, but it proves the concept that anyone's cells can be used to treat such cases. Doctors are excited because this suggests that stem cells could be banked for off-the-shelf use after heart attacks, just as blood is kept on hand now.

Results were discussed Monday at an American Heart Association conference in California and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study used a specific type of stem cells from bone marrow that researchers believed would not be rejected by recipients. Unlike other cells, these lack a key feature on their surface that makes the immune system see them as foreign tissue and attack them, explained the study's leader, Dr. Joshua Hare of the University of Miami.

The patients in the study had suffered heart attacks years earlier, some as long as 30 years ago. All had developed heart failure because the scar tissue from the heart attack had weakened their hearts so much that they grew large and flabby, unable to pump blood effectively.

Researchers advertised for people to supply marrow, which is removed using a needle into a hip bone. The cells were taken from the marrow and amplified for about a month in a lab at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, then returned to Miami to be used for treatment, which did not involve surgery.

The cells were delivered through a tube pushed through a groin artery into the heart near the scarred area. Fifteen patients were given cells from their own marrow and 15 others, cells from strangers.

About a year later, scar tissue had been reduced by about one-third. Both groups had improvements in how far they could walk and in quality of life. There was no significant difference in one measure of how well their hearts were able to pump blood, but doctors hope these patients will continue to improve over time, or that refinements in treatment will lead to better results.

The big attraction is being able to use cells supplied by others, with no blood or tissue matching needed.

"You could have the cells ready to go in the blood bank so when the patient comes in for a therapy — there's no delay," Hare said. "It's also cheaper to make the donor cells," and a single marrow donor can supply enough cells to treat as many as 10 people.

Dr. Elliott Antman of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who heads the heart conference, praised the work.

"That opens up an entire new avenue for stem cell therapy, like a sophisticated version of a blood bank," he said. There's an advantage in not having to create a cell therapy for each patient, and it could spare them the pain and wait of having their own marrow harvested, he said.

The study was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Hare owns stock in a biotech company working on a treatment using a mixture of cells.

Juan Lopez received his own cells in the study, and said it improved his symptoms so much that at age 70, he was able to return to his job as an engineer and sales manager for a roofing manufacturer and ride an exercise bike.

"It has been a life-changing experience," said Lopez, who lives in Miami. "I can feel day by day, week by week, month by month, my improvement. I don't have any shortness of breath and my energy level is way up there. I don't have any fluid in my lungs."

And, he said happily, "My sex drive has improved!"

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP .

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Election 2012: You're in the Control Room

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    It is a fact of any election: there must be a loser. On Wednesday morning, either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama will wake up to the realization that he will not be spending the next four years in the Oval Office. Those plans for the transition? Throw them in the trash.Read More

  • 50992de4fb6041ec6c01838a

    Several athletes have made the jump to politics, including Jack Kemp (NFL, vice-presidential candidate in 1996), Jim Bunning (baseball, U.S. senator) and Bill Bradley (NBA, U.S. senator). More recently, Kevin Johnson (formerly of the Phoenix Suns) and Heath Shuler (formerly of the Washington Redskins) have made the leap into the political arena.Read More

  • 509928f29befec0c690133d6

    In the bitterly fought battle for women voters this election season, both candidates dwelled on issues like equal pay, abortion, access to contraception and women's unemployment. And the news media eagerly speculated on the candidates' chance of success with female voters, who made up 53 percent of the electorate in 2008.Read More

  • 5099264eb0aef3006700a238

    NEW YORK (AP) - Election Day turnout was heavy in several storm-ravaged areas in New York and New Jersey, with many voters expressing relief and even elation at being able to vote at all, considering the devastation.Read More

  • 5099223926d77ff65d025f94

    From Yahoo! News: BEDFORD, Mass. - Mitt and Ann Romney cast their ballots this morning, the candidate saying that he's feeling "very good" about his chances today. They arriving at their polling station just before 9 a.m. As they left, Romney was asked who he voted for. "I...Read More

  • 509920b3d9a13dcb52065ab0

    View the photo U.S. Vice President Biden holds hands with a poll worker as he emerges from the voting booth after casting his ballot during the U.S. presidential election in Greenville on Yahoo! News. Find more photos in our photo galleries.Read More

  • 50991d1453579a8b66044c1d

    The first results of the 2012 election are in, and President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are tied. As has been the tradition since 1960, residents of Dixville Notch, a tiny village in Coos County, New Hampshire, cast their ballots--all 1o of them--shortly after midnight Tuesday, with five votes for the president, and five for [...]Read More

  • 50991b16bcb9117b6a03461e

    Mitt Romney's seat on his campaign plane (Bedford MA)

    Mitt Romney's seat on his campaign plane (Bedford MA)

  • 509912c76df882705a030a2f

    On the Romney press bus, @jimacostacnn does a live shot (Bedford MA)

    On the Romney press bus, @jimacostacnn does a live shot (Bedford MA)

  • Read More..

    US Air Force keeps fleet of aging warhorses flying

    TOKYO (AP) — For decades, the U.S. Air Force has grown accustomed to such superlatives as unrivaled and unbeatable. These days, some of its key combat aircraft are being described with terms like geriatric, or decrepit.

    The aging of the U.S. Air Force, a long-simmering topic in defense circles, made a brief appearance in the presidential debates when Republican nominee Mitt Romney cited it as evidence of the decline of U.S. military readiness. His contention that the Navy is the smallest it's been since 1917 got more attention, thanks to President Barack Obama's quip that the Navy also has fewer "horses and bayonets."

    But analysts say the Air Force has a real problem, and it will almost certainly worsen no matter who wins Tuesday's election. It was created in part by a lack of urgency in the post-Cold War era, and by design glitches and cost overruns that have delayed attempts to build next-generation aircraft.

    Looming budget cuts limit the force's ability to correct itself, they argue, as China's rise as a world power heightens its need to improve. And though the world's most formidable air force never had much use for bayonets, it's got more than its share of warhorses.

    ___

    IKE'S LEGACY — THE KC-135 STRATOTANKER

    The U.S. probably couldn't have fought the air wars over Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya without the KC-135 Stratotanker, the Air Force's main aerial refueler, which allows fighter jets to remain airborne on long flights.

    America has President Eisenhower to thank for that.

    The KC-135 came into service during his watch in 1956. The newest of the roughly 400 Stratotankers in service started flying nearly half a century ago, in 1964.

    "We are in unknown territory," said Lt. Col. Brian Zoellner, who has been flying the KC-135 for 15 years and is head of operations for 909th Air Refueling Squadron at Kadena Air Base on Japan's southwestern island of Okinawa. "The unknown is at what point does the KC-135 become unusable."

    The KC-46A refueling tanker is being developed as a replacement, but probably won't start delivery for another five years. If Congress has its way, some Stratotankers could still be taking off well into the 2040s.

    THAT '70s SHOW — THE F-15, F-16 AND A-10

    The F-15, America's workhorse warplane since the Vietnam War, was designed to have a service life of about 5,000 flight hours. The Air Force has more than tripled that, to 18,000 hours.

    The F-16, another key fighter, has been in use since 1979. The Air Force began retiring the oldest ones two years ago.

    Another '70s-era fighter is the A-10 Thunderbolt, which provides close air support for ground troops. It's now being rewinged because its old ones were riddled with cracks. The General Accounting Office estimates the cost of upgrading and refurbishing the aircraft will be $2.25 billion through 2013.

    The Air Force is revamping its fighter fleet with the stealthy F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but production of the F-22 was cut short after its price tag swelled to nearly half a billion dollars a pop. Delays and escalating costs have also dogged the F-35, which is now the most expensive Department of Defense procurement program ever.

    SPY PLANES FROM THE '50s — THE U-2

    The fabled U-2 "Dragon Lady" spy plane is still being used to keep watch over North Korea and other hot spots. The first U-2 flew in 1955, and the legendary Skunk Works aircraft became a household name for its role in the Cuban missile crisis, not to mention the propaganda bonanza the Soviet Union got by shooting one down in 1960 and capturing its CIA pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

    Many analysts argue the unmanned Global Hawk could do the job more effectively, but Congress has nixed that idea for now. More than $1.7 billion has been invested in upgrading the U-2.

    MAJOR KONG'S FAVORITE BOMBER — THE B-52

    Iconic, yes. State-of-the-art, no. The venerable B-52, remembered by movie fans for its starring role in the 1964 Cold War comedy "Dr. Strangelove," remains the backbone of the Air Force's strategic bomber force. It dates to 1954 and was already losing its edge by the end of the Vietnam War, but nearly 100 B-52s remain in service.

    The Air Force developed the B-1 in the 1970s as the B-52's replacement. President Jimmy Carter killed it, President Ronald Reagan brought it back, and none have been delivered since 1988.

    Next up was the stealth B-2 Spirit, which first flew in 1989. Because only 21 were built, they ended up costing a prohibitive $2 billion each. The Air Force is now hoping to upgrade with what it calls the Long Range Strike Bomber, but it's not clear when it will be ready.

    ___

    To be sure, all of these aircraft have undergone massive overhauls and updates, and most experts agree the U.S. Air Force remains the best-equipped in the world. Its aircraft aren't likely to soon start falling out of the sky, either, thanks to intensive, and expensive, maintenance.

    Zoellner, the KC-135 pilot, bristled at the idea his Stratotankers aren't safe. He said they "fly like a champ."

    But Loren Thompson, of the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank, said the graying Air Force is evidence of how Washington has failed to keep its eye on the ball.

    "The reason the fleet is so decrepit is because for the first 10 years after the Cold War ended, policymakers thought the United States was in an era of extended peace," he said. "Then it spent the next 10 years fighting an enemy with no air force and no air defenses. So air power was neglected for 20 years, and today the Air Force reflects that fact."

    Former Air Force Col. Robert Haffa, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, added that although ground forces were the primary concern in Iraq and Afghanistan, air power will be a key to future security requirements as the United States turns its attention to the Pacific and a strengthening China.

    Unlike America's more recent adversaries, China has a credible air force that could conceivably strike U.S. bases in the region, requiring a deterrent force that is based farther away, out of range. America's bases in Japan — and possibly Guam — also are within striking distance of a North Korean missile attack.

    "As the nation looks to increased focus in the Pacific, these long-range strike platforms will be especially important," Haffa said. "Planes like the B-52 simply cannot survive."

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    Apple sells 3 million iPads since Friday

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